[Brief translation]
Saudi Arabia, the world largest producer of oil with numerous oilrigs in the vast desert land, is no exception of serious shortage of fresh water. They are going to dispatch a delegation of ministerial level to the coming 3rd World Water Forum scheduled to convene in Kyoto, Japan on March 16, 2003. Their specific purpose is to take a closer look into the latest information on OTEC power generation and seawater desalination based on the OTEC technology developed and patented by Dr. Haruo Uehara, President of Saga University, Japan. The desalination technology of Saga University is widely known as "Spray Flash Method", whereby moisture-like seawater will be sprayed into a processing system depressurized to about 0.05atm by vacuum pump. Boiling point of water gets down to 20 - 30°C under the depressurized atmosphere, while moistre-like seawater offers larger surface area for better evaporation. Thus, evaporation time is greatly reduced and the vapor we get contains no salty substance. The vapor will next pass through high efficient plate type evaporators, while cold seawater is being applied on to the evaporator. Then, here you have fresh water. Xenesys Inc., a Japanese venture company of energy and water and the sole proprietor of business of Saga University's Spray Flash Method desalination plant as well as the OTEC power plant, signed last January an agreement of business tie-up with a Saudi Arabian company named Jamjoom, who is currently operating desalination plants. Mr. K. Satomi, President of Xenesys, who put his signature on the agreement while he was there, says the participation by Saudi Arabia in the coming World Water Forum demonstrate interest and expectation of the whole nation.